Downfall
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: A concert gone wrong leads to the suspicions of a conspiracy against a rockstar. *first CSI fanfic!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: my first CSI fic because I haven't really tried mystery before, but I planned this out in my own world before I even knew about FF. So let's hope it goes over well. Mostly centered on the mystery instead of the characters. this isn't going to be easy for me so please don't flame**

**Disclaimer: own what I own. What I don't is CSI's**

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Catherine came through the locker room. "We're not off yet, boys." She pressed a case file in its manila folder into Nick's chest as he turned to look at her from taking off his shoe. "Going to start one more tonight and leave the rest for the day people." And with that, she was gone, heels clicking in the hall outside the door as she disappeared.

Nick looked to Langston who was sitting on the bench beside him, also getting ready to head home for the day. "Sounds like we're up again." After setting the file down beside him, he leaned down to retie his shoe. A long night was bound to come and he had to be ready.

Without skipping a beat, Langston picked up the folder and flipped it open, eyes scanning the content on the white sheets of paper, taking in every word. A smirk crossed his dark lips and he looked up to Nick who had finished up and was holding his hand out for the file. Langston politely placed it in his palm and Nick's fingers closed around it. "Looks like we're headed to a concert," he said lightly, rising to his feet and grabbing the gear from the locker.

Returning the same smile, Nick pulled on his CSI vest and grabbed his own gear, the case file still stuck in one hand. "So let's get goin'."

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**A/N: short, but that's how the first part of the show is before the theme song. next one will obviously b longer. Leave a review! More shall come soon!**

**~Sky**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: don't expect this to be updated very frequently. I just want to get to the point of the fic at this moment. Thx to the reviewerz!**

**Disclaimer: own what I own.**

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Langston flicked on his flashlight, knowing that it was a concert and, despite all the lighting, the entire place would still be pitch black. "Dead?" he asked, eyes darting over to Nick who nodded sadly, still looking at the case file. His eyes skimmed across the words as fast as they could. "Shame," sighed Langston.

"The fans outside claimed that they saw him fall," said Nick, rubbing the back of his head with a gloved hand. "Through the tears and screams and sobs, of course." He looked behind them and saw the bawling crowd of teenagers crying and their chaperones demanding refunds for the concert. "And they said it didn't look like anyone else was near him."

"What's the band again?" asked Ray, finding the stairs on the side of the stage and slowly making his way up them while walking through the massive outdoor theater.

Nick looked back at all these fans. "They're called Ravan." He turned his sights back to the stage where Langston had already climbed up the stage stairs and was shining his flashlight in the direction of the middle podium that had risen up towards the sky and was obviously still up there due to the face that it was a crime scene. "A pair of brothers and their adopted sister."

Langston shook his head sadly and looked at all the crying fans. "Who was the faller?" he asked, his flashlight beam touching a body at center stage. The pool of blood around it glistened when the glow touched it.

"Center stage man. Nare Rose." Nick closed up the case file and shoved it under one arm to hold it. He bent down and looked over the ghostly skin of the teenager.

He looked only nineteen at most. His hair was a reddish violet color, almost like a dark scarlet. A thin face and the body of a boy, thin and lanky like a regular teenager. His clothes were just a dark gray t-shirt with a long, dark-chained necklace hanging low at the base of his ribcage with a key at the end of it and a pair of long baggy, dark jeans. Just a normal teenager. Falling to his death.

"He's only eighteen years old…" Nick closed his eyes and let out a long sigh as Langston worked to find any sign of a bullet. "It's just… its kind of wrong to see kids like this ending up dead because of show business."

"And to upset all those girls," breathed Langston, finding no sign of a bullet. "Were the other two on stage?"

Nick pointed at one side of the stage and then to the other. "Three podiums rise out of the stage and go up about fifteen feet and they stand there and sing with the sister on the left and the other brother on the right. Nare was in the center when he fell and they left the middle one up for us so that the scene was just as it happened." He looked over to the side of the stage to see a thin, fragile girl standing there and sobbing into a teenage boy's chest, clinging onto his shirt for dear life. "And there are the other two."

Langston's eyes narrowed towards the body. "You go talk to them," he said softly, working around the pool of thick crimson blood. "I'll keep working here."

Without a response, Nick headed off, taking the case file from under his arm and fingering it lightly while he walked towards the other two band members.

The girl was still clinging to her brother. Her pure ice blue eyes were wet with tears and mascara ran down her face in thick streaks of black. The tears had stained the other brother's clothes so that it was drenched with the moisture. A large dark stain was on his orange shirt. "I just…" whimpered the girl, "I just saw him fall and I screamed and…" Tears welled once more and she leaned into her brother again as a few more sobs racked her frail body.

Her brother wrapped one arm around her and kissed her forehead without saying a word.

Nick had read the whole case file while Langston had driven them to the outdoor theater. The sister was Cassie Evers, fifteen years old. She had kept her real last name even after the adoption process. Her hair was naturally blonde, but dyed a redhead with almost orange colored hair with a natural frizz to it that Nick could clearly see.

The brother was Wind Rose. Age seventeen. White, bleached blonde hair, naturally that color. He was the guitarist, pianist and drummer of the band. Not all at the same time, obviously. Cassie was the background singer and lead on some songs and also played the bass for the band.

He approached just as Brass was disappearing into the wings of the stage. "I'm Nick Stokes from the crime lab," he said, working to pull out his pad of paper to take notes. "Can I ask you two a few questions?"

Wind looked at him with soft hazel eyes. "Now's really not a good time," he said gently, holding Cassie tight to his chest to comfort the broken girl. "I'll talk in a minute. But Cassie needs to get back to the bus." He carefully began to steer his sister off the stage. "I'll be back in a few minutes, alright Mr. Stokes?"

Nick nodded with understanding eyes, knowing what these people were going through. He'd seen it enough times to know exactly what it was. Silently, he stood in the shadows against the wall, eyes following the siblings as they vanished behind curtains and walked neatly across wires and stage ropes. Like they were born for this kind of life.

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**A/N: there's chapter two. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave a review!**

**~Sky**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: doing the best I can to work on this kind of stuff. It's not easy, that's all I have to say…**

**Disclaimer: own Wind, Nare & Cassie**

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Langston walked into Nick's small office wordlessly, seeing he was with someone. He peered a little harder through his glasses. He looked at the teenage boy in the seat and then to Nick who was listening intently, nodding every few moments to note that he understood what he was saying.

Every few words, Langston picked up one name that kept coming out. Cassie. The only thing that the doctor could assume was that it was the name of the victim's sister and that this was the victim's brother, Wind Rose. And he stepped back out of the office. He knew Nick would get something out of this boy if he was left alone for long enough.

Nick kept his eyes intent on Wind. For not being the lead, he was a strong talker. It was almost as if he could've been the spokesperson for the band. His words came so confidently and so fluidly. "Cassie's already had a very hard time dealing with losses and this hasn't made it any easier on her. She would've come to talk, but I don't know if she'd be able to handle talking for very long before I'd have to take her from the room to calm her down and having a crying girl standing in the hall doesn't exactly help the situation." Wind gave a little shrug. "I'm doing my best to keep Cassie in one piece."

"I understand. It's hard to console sisters when they won't listen and when they're in a spiraling downfall of problems."

Wind let out a sigh and he took a deep breath. "Nare was always the front man and he was always the lead." His eyes glazed over for a moment. "I can't believe that something like that could happen to him… He was always getting caught up in the wrong things and getting in the wrong crowds, but Cassie had the sense to pull him out of it and I tried to keep him on the right path."

"Sounds like it should be the other way around," commented Nick, keeping his eyes intently on Wind.

"It should be, but Nare's always been a bit on the exotic side. He's always sticking his nose where it shouldn't be and this isn't how he should've ended up." Wind shook his head softly and took another deep breath. Then he exhaled once again. His eyes met Nick's. "I just really wish we hadn't done that concert…" His face twisted into a grimace for a second and a strange type of pained expression crossed his features. "I wish he was still here." Wind looked down at the ground and ran his fingers through his hair with both hands. "I just can't believe Nare's gone…"

"I'm sorry for your loss," breathed Nick, truly meaning it in comparison to his normal routine of just saying it as he had learned to do on the job. It was hard to become personal with the victim's families, but it was also hard to sympathize when he hardly knew what it was like to lose a loved one that close. Brothers were just natural, like breathing. And losing one… Nick couldn't exactly understand how it was for Wind.

"It's fine. We'll deal." He let out a long sigh. "Anyways, I oughta get going. Cassie's probably bawling her eyes out by now. Which worries me, since she needs her eyes to see and… yeah…" A little smirk danced across his lips for a moment. "Just call if you need anything," said Wind, putting his card on Nick's desk as he stood up to his full height.

"Thanks for coming in," said Nick, also getting up. He shook Wind's hand quickly before the rockstar quietly vanished from the office, disappearing down the hall.

Langston watched him from the break room through the glass walls. He rose from his chair and headed towards Nick's office. "That was the other brother?" asked the doctor, settling himself in the chair that the bleached blonde teen had sat in a moment ago.

"Yup," replied Nick, picking up the business card from behind him and looking it over.

The two fell into a comfortable silence, Langston reading over the case file that he hadn't been able to read all the way through yet and Nick was analyzing the business card, curious as to why a teenage rockstar needed one.

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**A/N: another chapter. There you go! Hope you enjoy! Please review!**

**~Sky**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: it's been a while since I updated this and I figured it was about time to get it going again. Sorry for the delay and all, guys.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own CSI**

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The toxicology report sat on Nick's desk as he came back from the scene at the concert's stage again. He had taken a few more blood samples and some DNA for Greg to look at, and he had put them just inside the door for the lab technician to take care of when he got to it.

Nick flipped open the cover of the report and stared at it for the longest time through his dark eyes, seeing that there were neither drugs nor alcohol in Nare's system. He shook his head, grimacing darkly at the cold, hard facts. This would be harder than he had originally anticipated. One witness was willing to talk anytime. Wind's business card had proved that. Yet Cassie was always shut up in the tour bus. And she was a key witness to the case. Nick knew he needed to talk to her no matter what. She would probably be a vital piece of the puzzle.

"No drugs," reported Langston, voice cold as he stood from just inside the door of Nick's office. "No nothing. I searched the bus for any signs of drugs or alcohol and there wasn't even a speck of whiskey." His eyes glinted dangerously as he added, "No sign of Cassie either." He shook his head, leaning against the open doorframe with one shoulder as he folded his arms across his chest. "It had to be a murder of some kind. Poison. Toxin. A quick dissolving one that metabolizes too fast to find."

"No physical injuries other than the ones caused by the fall," sighed Nick. "I have to say that you're right."

Langston gave a soft smirk, his white teeth shining through from behind his dark lips.

"But we should talk to the sister before we go jumping head first into that conclusion or else we could be researching toxins and poisons for days or maybe even weeks, Ray." Nick flipped the report, glancing at the second page for a mere second before announcing, "I'll talk to her. You keep going through this for any signs of some kind of overdose on something. Anything, really."

With a short and curt nod, Langston picked up the report as Nick left his office, jacket and hat in hand, ready to head back to the stage for the second time that day.

As soon as he was around the corner, Langston grinned delightfully to himself and sat in Nick's high-backed chair. He relaxed and began to flip through the pages nonchalantly without a care in the world except for engrossing himself in the levels of Nare Rose's body just before he died from his downfall.

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**A/N: short, I know, but don't judge, because it's all going somewhere, no worries. Don't forget to review and thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm gonna get to work on this faster so I can finish it up along with my other stuff so I can get more things up for my other categories**

**Disclaimer: I don't own CSI.**

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Nick pushed past the long thick wires that ran down the sides of the stage in massive bunches all tied together by more wires that held them perfectly in place. His dark eyes searched the thick backstage crowds of crew and stagehands that were hustling through the scarcely lit doorways.

He shook his head and moved along to the back ends of the stage where the tour buses filled with instruments and other band members were parked. He flashed his badge to the guards and they nodded, permitting him through to the large vehicles.

Nick found the tour bus simply as he had been there before with Langston to look over the entire space for any signs of a weapon or gunshot. Something that could've killed Nare.

The tour bus's door pushed open as an older man stepped out with a cup of something in his hand. Nick caught the door and stood there for the longest moments, wondering if he should even go in there without notifying them first. Then the voices floated to his ears.

"Wind..." came a soft, nearly crying feminine voice. "It was just a dare..."

"And Nare didn't need another game of truth or dare." Wind's tone was a vicious snarl. "This wasn't just another thing gone wrong, Cass. This got him killed."

No defense came from her. Silence fell into the bus.

Then she finally came around to say, "We didn't mean to..."

"We?"

He could hear a soft sniffle. A gasp of breath came soon after. "It was just a game..."

"You killed Nare."

"It was a mistake!"

"A mistake that got him killed. You killed _my_ brother." The snarl ripped loose from Wind's throat. Nick could imagine that his eyes were fierce with a blaze of rage.

"Don't do this, Wind. Don't leave me out. You need me to keep this band alive. You need me and your the only family I have. You know it." A sob crawled across her lips. "We have to help each other through this." Cassie's voice seemed to be breaking. "Leave me and we're both done for."

"Too bad for you then." Wind's footsteps came to the open doorway. "At least I have parents to go home to. They won't even say your name anymore." He turned around the corner, coming face to face with Nick, looking down the short set of stairs at him. Instead of saying anything, Wind just pushed right past Nick with a cold huff.

Nick looked back at him for a moment. Then his sights turned on the rest of the tour bus as he quietly clamored up the few remaining steps. "Cassie?" asked the CSI softly.

He looked around the tour bus's interior. Tables stretched out of the sides of the bus and guitars lined the walls along cabinets and leather seats. Blankets were stretched across chairs and the can lighting gave the whole place a warm feel.

But what Nick didn't see was Cassie. Just an empty open window and the fast clicking of heels running from the vehicle.

Nick jumped back out of the doorway and bolted for the other side of the bus, a chase ensuing.

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**A/N: I'm looking at three, maybe four more chapters. I'm really not sure. Review please!**

**~Sky**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: starting to finish this up now…**

**Disclaimer: do not own anything.**

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Nick followed after Cassie's steps, his own feet thundering across the cracked, cold pavement.

All he saw of her face was a small glimpse of it as she turned around to look over her shoulder. Her bright red hair swishes over her other shoulder and her eyes found Nick. She nearly stumbled but regained her balance quickly enough to keep going on at a high speed.

Soon, Nick was huffing to keep up. He was still running and racing to stay with her so that Cassie was only a few long strides ahead, but he was finding it much harder to keep up the same pace. "Cassandra Evers, stop!" The words sounded like he had breathed them, but she must have heard him because she slowed down for a few seconds to look over her shoulder again.

And she stopped running. "I didn't hurt him," she defended immediately, not even winded from the run. "It was just an accident." She sounded in near tears, her eyes already glistening with premature ones. "We didn't mean to." She held her hands to her chest in a prayer-like stance, her fingers interlocked together. "It was an accident..."

"Cassandra, you need to come in with us and we can help sort this out." Nick's breathing was heavy as he stared at her, trying not to double over to catch his breath. "You just have to tell me what happened to your brother that made him fall." His eyes were directed at her, watching her features for any signs of her defenses letting down. They weren't. At least not any time soon, anyways. "Cassandra, please let us take you in."

"That's what Nare and Wind did," she breathed, voice breaking. "They took me in. Look at what happened." Her eyes were cold as she stared at Nick. "I know that whoever I am with always ends up getting hurt. Just look at what happened to my parents." A lone tear slid down her soft, makeup covered cheek. Mascara followed in the drop of moisture. "And my adopted parents. Everyone I love. Everyone I touch." She clutched her hands to her chest. "I can't hurt Wind. He needs to carry this band."

Nick's gaze caught sight of something silver glinting between her fingers. A small but sharp blade was pinched between her interlaced fingers. His eyes widened. "Just listen to me, Cassie."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that. I can't risk hurting anyone more." Her hands thrust upwards into her throat, scarlet dribbling from where the blade had pierced her skin. Her lips opened slightly as she said, "I can't… hurt anyone… anymore…" Cassie's body fell to the ground, turning limp as it crashed to the cold cement floor. Her crimson blood began to flow freely beneath her as Nick frantically called in for emergency backup as crew began to appear from the shadows, eyes scared with worry for their fallen beloved.

With shaking hands, Nick pressed on the wound softly, hoping to stifle the blood flow from getting too out of control, but he knew that this had been a vital blow. He felt his hand growing wet and sticky with the vermilion blood that he touched. Pleading into the receiver for help or backup, Nick stared down at Cassie as her eyes began to slowly flutter shut. Her lips still moved as she formed more words. "Wind… I'm not hurting him… any longer…" They were strained and hardly more than a deathly whisper, but she managed to make them work. "But tell him… I'll miss him…" One hand moved to clutch Nick's wrist. Her eyes fluttered open to mere slits. "Please."

Quietly, Nick nodded. "I will," he said to her, voice low and gentle. "I will, Cassie."

A ghostly smile passed her lips before silently falling once again. The slits of her eyes vanished and her body when fully limp.

Nick leaned away from her cold frame, staring down at it sadly, his eyes cold and pained, knowing that he hadn't been able to save her. He breathed in the stage around him, seeing that the cast and crew were staring at him with awestruck eyes, emotions passing their expressions like a wildfire as they saw the fallen star lying there in her own bloody demise.

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**A/N: there's another chapter. I've got one more left I think. Maybe two, but I'm thinking it'll be only be one. Please review! Thank you!**

**~Sky**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: my final chapter. Sorry if it's disappointing. Only fifteen and not exactly capable of a full mystery without being confused… hehe. Thanks for reading, everyone!**

**Disclaimer: Own nothing.**

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Nick crashed into the chair in his office, sinking into it with utter exhaustion.

Langston sat in the chair opposite to him, glancing nonchalantly at the tired CSI in front of him. "What did you get out of him on Nare's case?" asked the African-American, voice gravelly despite his soft and simple tone.

"Wind said that prior to the concert that night," began Nick, "Cassie and Nare had made a bet that Nare couldn't down something close to ten cups of coffee." He took in a deep breath and his eyes fell shut. "The kid did it and the basic sugar crash brought him down enough to make him dizzy. And with that," Nick put one hand to his temple, "he fell to his death."

The darker man pulled his glasses from their perch on his nose and used them like an extension of his hand to point at Nick. "Teenagers will always do stupid things," he pointed out.

"You wouldn't expect stupid things to get them killed though, would you?" sighed Nick, blinking open his eyes and moving his hands to shuffle papers on his desk.

"No," breathed Langston, rising from the chair across from Nick's loaded desk, knowing it was finally time to head home for the two of them after the long nights they had just been through. He gathered his own files on the desk. "I wouldn't expect that."

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**A/N: please review! Thanks!**

**~Sky**


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